I was browsing the World Health Organization’s “topics” page while doing research for an article I’m working on.

Oddly enough, “hunger” and/or “starvation” are nowhere to be found. “Poverty” is listed, but turns up only four articles, one of which (predictably) explores the links between poverty and tobacco. “Nutrition” covers some hunger issues, but those must share space with alarmist rhetoric about obesity, or what one might call “overnutrition.”

Among the topics that are listed:

Obesity, alcohol consumption, sunburn, cell phones and electromagnetic fields, tobacco smoke pollution, traffic injuries, acupuncture, and in-depth coverage of Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome (commonly known as the human form of “Mad Cow Disease,” a condition which has killed less than 500 people, ever).

I’m sure the WHO still does work on hunger issues, but it clearly seems to be focusing less and less on legitimate health threats and more and more on (1) finding ways to use government to modify private behavior, and, (2) spreading hysteria about issues beloved by the “public health” movement - namely, issues that don’t pose much of a threat, but paint industry, development, and progress in a negative light.

I’m not sure if the fact that the WHO now seems more concerned about obesity and cell phones than hunger and poverty speaks well of how far we come, or speaks ill of the WHO.

Probably a little of both.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 11:47 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Alcohol, Nanny State, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.